"Preparing the Defense Sector for a Common European Security Policy"

Abstract

The paper is divided into four sections. The first section highlights the strategic context facing the European defense sector after 1988 when visions of a common European security policy resurfaced as a desirable goal. The second section reviews the ways in which the European defense sector responded to the changed strategic environment. The third section analyses the structural obstacles that have hampered the ability and dampened the desire of European defense industry leaders to adapt the defense sector in ways that would match the stated aspirations of European government leaders. The conclusion points to the difficulties that Europe will face in consolidating and restructuring its defense sector even in the event that a common European security policy finally begins to take shape in the wake of the Kosovo crisis.